Simplified Yu Sheng (Yee Sang) for the Year of the Horse

It is the year of the Horse as my Yu Sheng will tell you if you can read Mandarin.  My girls requested I created a running horse on the Yu Sheng, I tried doing that but it was not easy so I settled with this.  Because I didn't have the wonton skin, I made my own fried cracker here, I just used flour, sea salt and water to make the dough.  The trick was to roll it very thin and deep-fried it twice to make it crunchy.  I made the crackers a day before so it made it easier.   Happy to use my homemade raspberry vinegar ginger here and this year no colorings was used in the creation of this Yu Sheng.

Get the simplified Yu Sheng recipe here.

Red Bean Pastry Rolls

A friend shared a link to this recipe via Facebook and it interested me because I had a pack of red bean paste that needed to be used and this recipe looked easy.  I simplified the recipe further by using a food processor and with a ready made red bean paste, this was really easy to make. 

The pastry was crispy on the day it was baked and not as crispy day 2 onwards.  However, it was still a delicious treat.  A change from the usual CNY cookies!

Crispy Almond Cookies

Wow, how time flies!  Another Chinese Lunar New Year to be celebrated and this year is the year of the Horse!  I just realized that I have been blogging for the past 9 years and next year will be my 10 years anniversary!!  WOW!  My blog is getting old and hopefully I am not.  Haha... I really have to thank my readers who have supported my blog and who have come back to read my blog over the years even though I am not a good writer and I don't take beautiful pictures.   Nothing seem to change much over the years blogging wise, except I am now into a healthier eating life style and even simplified cooking method and recipes.  Also just to let you know that you can also follow me on Tweeter, Pinterest and Facebook for the latest blog update.  I hope after so many years, I still have more new recipes to share with you.  Okay long story short, hereby wishing all of you a healthy new year!  Eat healthier, eat healthy, eat more colorful food, eat more variety of superfood, eat more whole fresh food, cut down and minimize processed food and exercise for a HEALTHIER YOU!!  Money is nothing without health, so work on your health first and the rest will come into place.  HAPPY CHINESE LUNAR NEW YEAR!!!

As the name implied, this almond cookie is crispy!  I always made the melt-in-the-mouth peanut/cashew/almond cookies in the past and I wanted a change.  This year I wanted some crispy almond cookies, so I created this recipe.  This was actually my second attempt, my first attempt failed miserably resulted in a soft and melt-in-the-mouth almond cookies (so not sharing my failed attempt here).  I also wanted this recipe to be easily made (as I am famous for!), so out with my food processor!!  You can use your Kitchenaid mixer as a substitute.  Just add and mix and viola and not many things to wash later too.  Very easy and the dough can be easily shape and cut as well.  I didn't even use a roller to roll the dough, I just flatten it with my palms, but if you want an even shape, use your roller!  ;-)

Salted Chicken Egg Steamed Eggs

I made some salted chicken eggs a while back and I had no idea what to do with it.  Haha... you could say that was why I never bother to make my own or even buy salted eggs before.  But since I decided to make some the other day and my family members do not like to eat porridge, so there is no way that I can serve it with porridge.  I didn't want to waste the salted eggs so I made this!    It was so simple and blend well with the steamed eggs and not too salty at all.  I didn't season the beaten eggs for this reason.  Those tiny black dots were white pepper in case you were wondering.  I also added it in fried eggs, like a salted eggs fried eggs and my girls said it was good as well.

Pan-fried Tofu with Broccoli

I was trying on a new sauce called "Wan Ja Shan- Stir Fry Sauce" and I wanted to share it with you all.  It made this stir-fry dish delicious and I only used this sauce alone without any other seasonings.  You can make it into a one dish meal by adding some meat or poultry and serve it with a hot bowl of rice.  Or serve it vegetarian by adding some mushroom with a bowl of hot rice.  You should be able to find this sauce in the Asian supermarket.  You don't have to add a lot, just 1 Tbsp. should be enough for a whole dish.

Slow Cooker Spiced Chicken

I have been using my slow cooker quite often these days because I found it to be such a convenience.  I mostly used it for my Asian style recipes, Chinese herbal chicken tonic soup and Chinese dessert.  Today, I wanted to try it with a western style approach so I used whatever ingredients and herbs that I have in my house.  I loved sage and rosemary as I know these combination would work well together.  I am not disappointed at all as this got two thumbs up from both of my girls.  I served this with white rice and a Chinese style romaine lettuce side dish.